This week, Hayley and Alex delve into the often misunderstood cannabinoid CBD, and don’t come away with any easy answers. First they talk to Julie Winter of topicals maker CBD for Life. Then for a different perspective they chat with cannabis physicianDr. Jordan Tishler, of Inhale MD, near Boston, who’s more bullish on THC as medicine,

WWCanada is written by Jesse Staniforth, a freelance journalist in Montreal who has reported extensively on indigenous issues, cybersecurity, food safety, and cannabis for outlets including Leafly, ThinkProgress, The Walrus and Salon.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants hemp removed from the controlled substances list. McConnell called industrial hemp “really a different plant” than marijuana, even though the US government defines hemp as marijuana with lower than .3% THC content.

McConnell said he plans to explain the difference to his former Senate colleague US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The state treasurers of California, Oregon, Illinois and Pennsylvania have requested a meeting with AG Sessions to resolve the conflicts between state and federal law. It’s not clear if Sessions has responded.

After a judge ruled Arkansas’ MED license process unconstitutional, a company which said its license was legitimate asked for permission to open. The impoverished town of Cotton Plant, Ark. has high hopes for the cannabis industry.

A Rhode Island dispensary offered the state $5M “to plug the budget hole,” if it didn’t proceed with a plan to expand the number of MED licenses.

Colorado-based Ebbu has partnered with the creator of Blue Moon beer to create non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beers (Cannabist) which it says will be available in Colorado by the end of the year. The partnership will brew beer in several traditional styles and then add THC.

Michael “Dooma” Wendschuh who co-founded Ebbu with Cooper before he was fired in early 2016, has started another cannabis beer company (VICE), Province Brands, which is based in Ontario and plans to sell beer brewed from the cannabis plant. The THC will apparently derive from the plant material used for brewing, not an additive.

Insys also faces multiple investigations for aggressively marketing the opioid fentanyl. The FBI arrested its former CEO and five other executives in December. The company is also developing a product to treat opioid overdoses.

Canadian firm CannaRoyalty acquired two California distributors, RVR and Alta Supply, and manufacturer Kaya Management. For more subscribe toWeedWeek Canada.

Canadian firm Golden Leaf Holdings, which owns the Oregon dispensary chain Chalice, made a deal to franchise the brand nationally with venture capital firm BlackShire Capital. Golden Leaf CEO William Simpson predicted the company would be the “Starbucks of cannabis.” For more subscribe toWeedWeek Canada.

WWCanada is written by Jesse Staniforth, a freelance journalist in Montreal who has reported extensively on indigenous issues, cybersecurity, food safety, and cannabis for outlets including Leafly, ThinkProgress, The Walrus and Salon.

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WeedNews suggests legalization may have helped Democrat and MED supporter Conor Lamb win a special Congressional election in Pennsylvania by less than 1,000 votes. Republican Rick Saccone, who voted against MED, lost the district which President Trump won by 20 points.

After California threatened Weedmaps with civil or criminal charges for promoting unlicensed dispensaries, Weedmaps responded that since the company isn’t a licensee the state doesn’t have the power to regulate it (MJBiz).

Weedmaps cited Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (Ars Technica) which essentially argues that the company is not responsible for the actions of its users. The same defense has been successfully deployed by Backpage, a classifieds site notorious for sex industry ads.

WWCanada is written by Jesse Staniforth, a freelance journalist in Montreal who has reported extensively on indigenous issues, cybersecurity, food safety, and cannabis for outlets including Leafly, ThinkProgress, The Walrus and Salon.

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Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, a former executive at drugmaker Eli Lilly, said there’s “no such thing as medical marijuana.” He said the department The department is working on non-cannabis related ways to mitigate the opioid crisis.

Weedmaps does not appear to have responded. (Sacramento Bee) In February, Weedmaps president Christopher Beals said, “The thing is, at the end of the day, we’re an information platform…We’re showing the same information that Google and Yelp and Craigslist and 30 other websites are showing.”

Ajax also sent letters to 900 pot shops suspected of operating without a state license.

This week on the podcast, Hayley and I have a fascinating conversation with physician and Harvard Medical School instructor Dr. Peter Grinspoon. We discuss how the medical establishment thinks about MED, the opioid crisis and Grinspoon’s father, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, a hero of the legalization movement. In addition to his professional expertise, the younger Dr. Grinspoon became addicted to opioids while working as a doctor an experience he describes in his book Free Refills: A doctor confronts his addiction. The episode lands Monday at 4:20 p.m.Pacific.

Six unsuccessful applicants have sued the state (Cleveland.com) in a lawsuit which alleges scoring errors, regulators who failed to follow their own rules and outside “scoring consultants” with blatant conflicts of interest.

Our Stimulating Mixes Fruit Tarts combine a tangy apple, lemon and grape flavors deliver a tart punch to your palate along with a microdose of our incredible oil for discreet medicating on the go. These tarts are gluten free, non-GMO, and always triple-lab tested for potency, purity and safety.

U.S. House Rules Committee Chair Pete Sessions — no relation to AG Jeff — who’s among the most anti-pot legislators in Washington, said marijuana use leads to opiate addiction, a claim largely unsupported in the medical literature.

Marijuana “merchants of addiction…are making it more powerful and more powerful and more powerful,” Sessions said. “When I went to high school … in 1973, I graduated, marijuana, on average, is 300 times more powerful. That becomes an addictive element for a child to then go to the next thing.”

This week on the podcast, Hayley and I talked to Anja Charbonneau, founder of Broccoli, a fashion-forward cannabis magazine for women. Among much else, Anja talks about the global cannabis community, finding a place for cutting edge design in the cannabis world, and a favorite weed inspired song. The episode drops Monday at 4:20 p.m.Pacific.

The 2018 U.S. midterm elections are coming. Register to vote and/or get the information you need to vote here.

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Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R) partially lifted his hold (Reuters) on Justice Department confirmations “as a show of good faith for continued positive conversations,” with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on protecting state legal cannabis businesses from federal prosecution.

Gardner backed down days after Sessions, in prepared remarks (Forbes), implied Gardner was endangering national security. Sessions added, “I cannot and will not pretend that a duly enacted law of this country — like the federal ban on marijuana — does not exist. Marijuana is illegal in the United States — even in Colorado, California, and everywhere else in America.”

Our Stimulating Mixes Fruit Tarts combine a tangy apple, lemon and grape flavors deliver a tart punch to your palate along with a microdose of our incredible oil for discreet medicating on the go. These tarts are gluten free, non-GMO, and always triple-lab tested for potency, purity and safety.

Cannabis is a safe and effective treatment for seniors suffering from chronic pain, data published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine found. In a study of more 1,186 Israelis, after six months more than 93% of respondents reported an improvement in their condition.

This week on the podcast, Hayley and I talked sex, weed and politics with Dan Savage! Among much else, Dan talks cannabis activism, his favorite brand of cannalube and what he does when he’s stoned. The episode lands Monday at 4:20 p.m. Pacific.

The 2018 U.S. midterm elections are coming. Register to vote and/or get the information you need to vote here.

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Contrary to the available science, Attorney General Jeff Sessions blamed marijuana for the opioid crisis. “The DEA said that a huge percentage of the heroin addictions starts with prescriptions. That may be an exaggerated number — they had it as high as 80 percent — we think a lot of this is starting with marijuana and other drugs,” he said.

To alleviate the epidemic Sessions told Americans to “take some aspirin sometimes and tough it out.” He also praised White House chief of staff former Marine Gen. John Kelly for refusing opioids after a recent minor surgery.

The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment which protects state legal MED businesses from federal prosecution was extended until March 23 as part of the budget deal. It’s the eighth time the amendment has been extended.

Republicans blocked an amendment from Congressman Jared Polis (D-Colo.) which would have prevented federal prosecution of state-legal cannabis businesses.

Paragon, a cannabis blockchain company which raised $70M in an initial coin offering, has been sued by investors who allege the company didn’t file its offering with regulators. In a statement, founder Jessica VerSteeg, a former Miss Iowa, said the company is “dedicated to staying compliant with all applicable laws.”

After a 40-month legal battle Colorado credit union Fourth Corner won conditional approval from the Federal Reserve to offer banking services to ancillary businesses, but not plant-touching companies. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears to support bank access for cannabis businesses.

Partner Colorado Credit Union, which serves the industry, has been hit with a wrongful termination lawsuit which claims the plaintiffs witnessed CEO Sundie Seefried using cocaine. The company denied the allegations and called the suit groundless.

An unsuccessful license applicant in Pennsylvania, is calling for a do-over which would halt the industry days before MED sales begin. The entity calls the state’s selection process “flawed, inequitable and unconstitutional.”

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Check in Monday for episode threefeaturing an exclusive interview with Congressmand Earl Blumenauer, (D-Ore.). A longtime advocate for legalization, Blumenauer discusses the mood in Congress and how 2018 candidates should talk and think about legalization

States, especially the most recent to legalize, are concerned about what the Cole Memo decision will mean for pot tax revenue.

Aaron Smith, head of the embattled National Cannabis Industry Association, said lobbyists told him Sessions did not alert President Trump of his decision to rescind the Cole Memo. Sessions is “on an island,” Smith said.

A Baldwin Park, Calif., city councilwoman received a $4,400 campaign contribution from the CEO of cannabis company Rukli, the day after she awarded his company an exclusive cannabis transport permit in the city.

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Before the shutdown, Colorado Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis (D) fell short in his attempt to block federal prosecutions against state-legal cannabis businesses. The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, which blocks federal prosecutions against state legal MED, expired when the shutdown began.

Roughly nine hours into the shutdown, there did not appear to be any reports of federal anti-cannabis actions.

House Democrats introduced a bill to legalize REC federally and provide “restorative justice” for the war on drugs. It would expunge some minor federal convictions and create a fund to help former convicts enter the industry. It’s a companion to a bill introduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) earlier this year.

A poll conducted for Kevin Sabet’s anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) found 16% of Americans favor the status quo of federal prohibition, 29% favor legalizing MED, 5% back decriminalization and 49% favor full legalization. (Among Republicans, 25% favor the status quo.) For SAM, the silver lining is with more choices, fewer Americans support full legalization than other recent polls suggest.

In her brief stint at NCIA, Murray alleges witnessing: employee favoritism, a legally exposed “personal intimate relationship” between executive director Smith and a current employee, a lack of accountability, poor morale, profligate spending and slow growth relative to the industry.

NCIA referred Meagher to a response to allegations in Khalatbari’s email, which NCIA put out before Murray’s letter came to light. Responding to Khalatbari it stated, “While we acknowledge the opinion published, it was formed based on incomplete information and hearsay.” It also acknowledged “innuendo” about sexual harassment at the organization, and says there are no pending cases and no cases have been filed in the past.

The NCIA site still lists Rob Kampia, the Marijuana Policy Project founder, as a board member. Kampia recently departed MPP amid past sexual harassment allegations, and rumors that more could come to light. For more see MJBizDaily.

Anyone familiar with the situation at NCIA who wants to talk on background can contact me at alex@weedweek.net.

Fort Collins, Colo.-based Sunrise Genetics said it has mapped the cannabis genome. Deepening genetic knowledge can lead to improvements in growing and the value of specific chemicals found in the plant.

Washington cannabis prices plummeted on oversupply, with some farmers accepting as little as $1 a gram wholesale. Meanwhile, local rules ban businesses in some parts of the state. Canna Law Blog has more on the oversupply problem.

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